Last night Hillary Lindeman from Google, Deny Khoung from Whitespace, Faith Bolliger from SoFi and Loredana Crisan from Facebook Messenger, joined forces for a conversation about what it takes to get into product design.
The speakers came from various backgrounds that included visual design, t-shirt design, music production, education, and even sociology, and shared insight about their personal journeys into product design. (As well as what they ate—or failed to eat—for breakfast!)
The conversation ranged from specific tips on how to distinguish your portfolio—don’t use a “cookie-cutter” Post-It photo, it’s been done—to bigger questions regarding how they see the field evolving. They often circled back to their own unique story that led them to their respective positions—we even found out that one of the panelists has “boundary issues.” Peppered in were pro-tips on what types of software you should know, as well as some of their favorite and inspiring books, blogs and podcasts; if you’re not already, now is the time to start listening to Oakland’s own Roman Mars and the 99% Invisible.
You can sign up for the next D//W: The Future of UX here. Interested to learn how to tell your own story and land your next role? Check out our talk on Designing Your Own Story next week!

Big thanks to all of the speakers, moderator Amy Stellhorn, D//W program chair Rick Byrne, as well all of our volunteers for making this sold-out night possible!